Wax stayed at top sooooo...

[Tiki Carol]

Mid 90's lamp from what I can tell. The wax floated to top and stayed there. I drained, then mixed the wax with 50% non flammable BrakKleen. 

Refilled.

Wax just sat on bottom; liquefied but just sat there

Then then I drained and refilled with Distilled water.

Nuthin'

So I started adding Epsom Salt (I know I know but I can't afford the PG or PG 300)

Kept adding E.S. mixed with warm distilled water.

Draining 

add

drain alittle more

add.

Well a pound and a half of E.S. latter I have some action. Little tiny bubbles like you'd get in a glass of sparkling water or Champaign.

After messing with this for well over a month I'm really getting frustrated and forlorn at this point.

Suggestions? More E.S.? 

Separate post so I didn't highjack another persons thread.

Oh - and Used 25 then 40 watt bulbs moving globe to different bases. Even tried dimmers.

[tim]

you probably added too much brakleen, brakleen is denser than even pure glycerin/propylene glycol/salt and so if you add too much you will have no hope of ever getting the lava to rise. i would recommend adding more regular paraffin wax to the wax to make it less dense. also you will need to add some surfactant to the water if you want it to form more than one or two big blobs at once, but you can get it to rise and fall a bit without surfactant so i wouldn't worry about that yet.

[Tiki Carol]

UPDATE: Thanks Tim for the reply. I had no more paraffin on hand, BUT plenty of E.S. 

So I drained the lamp, heated the liquid in a my trusty lava pot, added another 1 pound bag of E.S. and a few drops of dish soap (wish I had went and bought some clear but getting impatient (not the lamps fault hehe). As you can see, the lamp is struggling. It's on the 25w lamp base currently. I'll leave it run the full 8 to 10 hours and report back. Still open for suggestions.

P.S. Please don't get me wrong, As impatient and frustrating as this hobby is for me I am still having a ball! :)

[Claude J]

What TIM said
too much Brakeleen/PERC

Adjust with more wax. not the fluid adjustments

tim said:

you probably added too much brakleen, brakleen is denser than even pure glycerin/propylene glycol/salt and so if you add too much you will have no hope of ever getting the lava to rise. i would recommend adding more regular paraffin wax to the wax to make it less dense. also you will need to add some surfactant to the water if you want it to form more than one or two big blobs at once, but you can get it to rise and fall a bit without surfactant so i wouldn't worry about that yet.